Arc of Attrition 50

I’d wanted to do an ultra marathon for a while but my hand was forced when my husband bought me entry into the Arc of Attrition 50 for my 40th birthday.

After a poor first half of 2025 where I hadn’t performed as I wished in a couple of road events and having thyroid surgery I knew that I needed all the help I could get for getting me in the position to be able to attempt the Arc.

I turned to ESTR as they have always been so helpful and understanding for my husband when he trains for various crazy events while working 24/7.

They started me on a training plan in September and met me where I was at the time and built up my speed and endurance gradually.

I’d always shied away from coaching before as I was worried I would put unnecessary pressure on myself if I couldn’t meet the commitments. However, I needn’t have worried as the plan was fully personalised and it was manageable even when unexpected events cropped up, as they always do.

The training held me accountable and built my resilience. There were sessions such as time trials which would track my progress and although daunting at the time it was great to have to do them, I certainly wouldn’t have done that if I was left to my own devices. It also took a lot of doubt out of training for me as I trusted if I stuck to the plan I was doing exactly what was needed to get me to the start line.

I hadn’t banked on good weather for the race in January in Cornwall but it was even more of a challenge than anticipated as the weather was awful from the moment we touched down in Cornwall. We were very glad not to be doing the 100 mile race which had started the day we arrived and had involved the first 24 hours being in torrential rain courtesy of Storm Ingrid.

We got lucky to not have too much rain and the wind had slightly died down for the day of the race. It was however, incredibly muddy which really slowed me down. I was really lucky that my husband ran with me which massively helped.

It was beautiful scenery at every turn and reminded me a lot of the coastal paths at home. Once I had come to terms with it being tougher than anticipated due to the mud, I managed to mostly enjoy it. Overall, I was consistently surprised at how good I felt, especially in the runnable parts like hard sand and road. I was able to move past other runners that had started in the same wave which is really motivating. I think this was entirely due to the training plan from ESTR with the long back to back runs and the types of terrain they had me running on.

Stopping at aid stations was a new thing for me and it was a welcome break to have some warm food and to have such lovely support with filling bottles etc. This was a huge difference for me to previous road races and it was so appreciated that volunteers were so helpful and friendly.

A few times when the going got tough I wondered why people ever do more than one ultra marathon but one week on and I am already looking forward to another one and getting back to a training block, I feel a bit lost without it!